MBTs maybe, but light tanks still have a bunch of uses. They can be deployed with small recon teams, used as fire support, and as target painters for air support. I was also going to say that their small frame and speed is a huge advantage, but at this point most MBTs in use can go ridiculously fast, too. The biggest problem with MBTs recently have been their size. It’s just way easier to guide and navigate a light tank through an urban environment.
I completely understand that we live in an air superiority world, but I would not ever fully discount the use of an armored vehicle that has dangerous munitions
Maybe silly, but I might compare it to the history of Cavalry. As new technology and methods of waging war made heavy cavalry obsolete as a tool for breaking lines and overpowering infantry, light cavalry persisted for a very long time as a more versatile, and less expensive, tool for reconnaissance, support, and force multiplication.
MBTs maybe, but light tanks still have a bunch of uses.
This mind of flip flop did actually happen during the Cold War when heavy tanks were phased out by both sides and especially by the French and Germans whose AMX-30 and Leopard 1 were less thickly armored than the M48 Pattons they replaced. The reason was the development of ATGMs which could punch through M48 level armor extremely easily and steel armor thick enough to counter them was impracticable heavy.
By the time AMX-30 and Leopard 1 were replaced with Leclerc and Leopard 2, both successor tanks had gone back to being heavily armored. The reasons being the development of better engines, explosive reactive armor, and composite armor capable of defeating ATGMs.
We may be on the verge of another inversion of protection vs size and speed, but one conflict is too little evidence to make that kind of assessment. The issue with phasing out the MBT is the question of what you replace it with. Removing them from an army entirely leaves a gap in a maneuver vehicle that can bring a lot of firepower to an objective quickly and have the durability to withstand fire.
MBTs maybe, but light tanks still have a bunch of uses. They can be deployed with small recon teams, used as fire support, and as target painters for air support. I was also going to say that their small frame and speed is a huge advantage, but at this point most MBTs in use can go ridiculously fast, too. The biggest problem with MBTs recently have been their size. It’s just way easier to guide and navigate a light tank through an urban environment.
I completely understand that we live in an air superiority world, but I would not ever fully discount the use of an armored vehicle that has dangerous munitions
Maybe silly, but I might compare it to the history of Cavalry. As new technology and methods of waging war made heavy cavalry obsolete as a tool for breaking lines and overpowering infantry, light cavalry persisted for a very long time as a more versatile, and less expensive, tool for reconnaissance, support, and force multiplication.
This mind of flip flop did actually happen during the Cold War when heavy tanks were phased out by both sides and especially by the French and Germans whose AMX-30 and Leopard 1 were less thickly armored than the M48 Pattons they replaced. The reason was the development of ATGMs which could punch through M48 level armor extremely easily and steel armor thick enough to counter them was impracticable heavy.
By the time AMX-30 and Leopard 1 were replaced with Leclerc and Leopard 2, both successor tanks had gone back to being heavily armored. The reasons being the development of better engines, explosive reactive armor, and composite armor capable of defeating ATGMs.
We may be on the verge of another inversion of protection vs size and speed, but one conflict is too little evidence to make that kind of assessment. The issue with phasing out the MBT is the question of what you replace it with. Removing them from an army entirely leaves a gap in a maneuver vehicle that can bring a lot of firepower to an objective quickly and have the durability to withstand fire.
I don’t know why but this just makes me think of those chicken walker metal gears from MGS4